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The risk from pesticides/ What happens to the products that appear on the Albanian market

2024-02-07 21:26:43Aktualitet SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX

 

Albanian authorities are put in motion when EU countries report pesticide residues in Albanian exported products, but no one controls what enters our market.

In this Wednesday's episode, Inside Story has brought an investigation, related to the risk of using prohibited chemicals or exceeding the permitted rates.

In a foggy situation of 3 decades, with wrong policies and taxes that increase the cost of production, the Albanian farmer has been left alone.

The deadlines for the use of pesticides, even though the EU prohibits them, raise questions that Albania is turning into a warehouse of these banned products.

A big game is made with products that are phased out in the EU and left for use only for the domestic market. They are sold in agricultural pharmacies even after their expiration date has passed.

Another problem remains the effects that are still felt from the contamination of the soil from the communist period with dangerous pesticides.

Failure with seeds, state laboratory: We do not have the capacity for genetic analysis 

Farmers express numerous complaints about the quality of the seeds. The problem is compounded when they are forced to use chemical fertilizers that do not have the active ingredient listed on the label, or even expired. This leads to the failure of a season. 

Two years ago, this family spent millions of lek to plant the greenhouse with peppers, which failed. The plant grew healthy, but did not form fruit, bringing the entire investment to waste.

After complaining about the quality of the seed, the institutions told him that this is a seed registered and analyzed since 2013. 

The central laboratory admits that they do not have the capacity to develop genetic analyses, leaving farmers at the mercy of fate. 

"If you go to these agricultural offices in the Municipality, they would send a work group for the farmer, but there is nothing. We have gone as individuals and apart from arrogance we have not received any help, we have not received compensation to this day", said Vali Mata, a farmer.

The use of pesticides to increase agricultural production is one of the biggest challenges. Despite the reforms and attempts to bring this sector to the fore, it continues to function in chaos and without control.

"We took bees for flower pollination, but we don't know how they will turn out for the fertilizers, we work and say God will help us in the end", said Vali Mata.

Loads of pesticides, the European ALERT reveals dozens of cases from Albania

RASFF is an alert system set up by the European Commission for all food products that are caught at customs with different loads of pesticides or chemicals.

The Albanian flag appears several times in this register, which means that Albanian products have been caught with pesticides above the allowed rate.

In February 2023, a cargo of cabbage heading to Croatia was found to contain oxamil above the permitted rate. The case was reported by Croatia, although in Albania it passed in silence and no one dealt with the case.

In March 2023, the presence of chlorpyrifos, a banned substance, was detected in the daisy flower.

Furthermore, in the month of April, contamination was again detected above the norms in Albanian products.  

The fresh spring onions, as they were headed for export, turned out to have an above-normal level with the pesticide dodine.

Peppers also resulted in pesticides above the norm, and products that had expired.

Pesticide residues were also reported in tomatoes that went for export.

The fennel flowers also tested positive for salmonella and exceeded the limits for several types of pesticides and nutrients.

In December 2023, problems were reported with strawberries, one of the main fruits in the list of Albanian products that are exported.

These are the reported cases, when they were caught by foreigners, while it is suspected that dozens of other cases are caught by the exporters themselves or the Albanian authorities, but it is not reported. These discoveries show that the loads that are distributed in the local market, arrive at our tables without being subjected to controls.

"We trusted AKU. The AKU comes into play when the analyzes in Germany come out with loads above the norm, then the AKU comes into play like the kopfini after the harvest by imposing some fine" said Eduart Sharaka, an expert on agricultural policies

Contradiction of figures, did they introduce 1,000 tons of smuggled pesticides?

Playing with pesticides is burdening farmers and consumers. According to the data made available by Instat in our country in 2020, 2 thousand tons of pesticides worth 1.3 billion ALL were introduced. This figure declined during the pandemic years, dropping to 1,800 tons of pesticides in 2021, 1,450 tons in 2022, and starting an upward curve in 2023 during which 1,600 tons of pesticides were imported.

But the data reported by FAO raise questions about what happens to pesticides in the Albanian market.

In 2021, FAO Stat, which receives data directly from the customs system, reported that 756 tons of pesticides were used in Albania, a figure almost twice as small as the 1,800 tons reported by Instat.

It is about an unjustifiable difference of almost 1 thousand tons, which raises many questions about the use of pesticides in our country.

The problem starts when they are used above the allowed rates. Excess causes serious damage. The plant assimilates as much as it can, as much as it needs and discharges the excess to the ground, from the ground it is taken by water, from the water it ends up in the river or the sea.

This excess of chemicals that are not used by the plant, are transferred to other products, to seafood, and if it is thrown excessively, we consume it directly. 

"We get poisoned from both sides: from the product directly, but also from other products that are contaminated by these pollutants", said Abdulla Diku, environmentalist

Farm control, experts: Phytosanitary certificates are often invalid

At the top of this pyramid is the Ministry of Agriculture, which drafts the relevant policies, and below it are several institutions that have separate roles. 

Currently, no one officially controls the farms due to conflicting powers. The National Food Authority, which has been the only institution with this competence, has never performed it. Meanwhile, with the recent change in the law, this right to control pesticides on farms was also recognized by the National Veterinary and Plant Protection Authority. But the by-laws have not yet been issued for this institution, and therefore it has not yet received the status of the inspectorate. As such, even this institution cannot legally enter the farm to check.

As a result of this cacophony, even the local and regional structures do not work. About 300 agronomists distributed in Albania, part of the advisory service, cannot reach the farmers.

'Pesticide? Yes, we take mine here. Where is my agronomist here, who is responsible here? They give you a bag and tell you to throw it on the ground and we throw it away' said Fiqiri Sinani, a farmer

When a product is sent for export, it is mandatory to carry the phytosanitary certificate, which shows that the product is free from quarantine pests. But in most cases, experts say that this certificate is invalid.

'Here in Albania there are still miracles, the agronomist signs without knowing where the product was harvested and what it was treated with. The traders, after taking 20-30 farmers, fill a trailer, notify the agronomist appointed by the Ministry of Agriculture, he comes and does not even know whose product it is, nor what is inside, nor what it has been treated with, but simply for procedure he blindly signs it and then when they do those analyzes it comes out' said Eduart Sharka, an expert on agricultural policies

Paradox/ Loads of chemicals, analysis comes out after the product ends up on the market

The lack of tracking of a product, which means what is used on it from the moment it is planted until it ends up on the market, was also found by a report of the High State Control.

The paradox is that even in cases where the NFA sends the samples for analysis, the results come out after a long time, when the product has ended up on the market. A phenomenon discovered earlier by "Inside Story" in a similar investigation on animal antibiotics.

"If the analysis comes later, it may only have statistical value, but it no longer has practical value. so if a product has reached the market and had a problem, the effect it had to perform has already performed' said Edmond Panariti, Former Minister of Agriculture

The High State Control finds that the lack of support has brought about a collapse in the phytosanitary service. This is because the Institute of Food Safety and Veterinary Medicine, a reference laboratory, works under conditions of limited financial capacity.

The Institute of Food Safety and Veterinary Medicine has not fulfilled the legal and administrative obligation imposed by the Minister's Order on the control plan for the period 2018-2020, in taking samples and performing analyzes within the 10-day deadline.

The phytosanitary certificate issued by this institution is the key document that guarantees the quality of the product. But expositors turn to private laboratories, as the public does not guarantee the full range of analyses.

"In Lushnje there is no real laboratory, but we go and make them there too, they are very expensive, a kg of peppers costs 300 euros. No, ISUV is not known, we do it at NOVAL because only it is known and makes many types of pesticides' said Nedrete Arapi, farmer

Unfortunately, AKU's laboratories do not carry out analyzes for export, nor are they recognized. The only one is ISUV, which does not have all of them accredited although it performs a wide range. Exporters are obliged to carry out tests in private as well, as the phytosanitary certificate issued by state institutions as a color printed paper is not enough. But due to the costs, exporters sometimes fall short,' said Granit Sokoli, food safety expert

Losses from OKSAMIL's ban, the farmer: They returned my truck with tomatoes

The case of the "oxamil" cargo was partly a victim of this scheme. The product was banned in EU countries, but was allowed to be used in Albania. Nedrete Arapi, one of the largest exporters in the country, says that the chain of communication between the farmer and the responsible institutions is missing.

"When he was arrested in Europe in May, Oksamili came to us in September, there should have been a warning to us at the collection points to be careful. It was on the market until September, until my colleague lost it, he paid 33 thousand euros for a barge,' said Nedrete Arapi, a farmer.

In the absence of the functioning of the links, the exporter says that they operate with knowledge and assume risks that are not theirs. She narrates a concrete episode about a large amount of blocked product.

'We play with the risk here, having many farmers, that someone has 2 ha, they are more reliable, but they also have small greenhouses and pesticides are a very big problem. Two years ago, he returned a truckload of tomatoes with a pestle that had been out of date for too long. We are with God, we try with our strength to find where it is best, we try to see what he has thrown, let's ask the agronomists, we are doing more of this fight ourselves' said Nedrete Arapi, farmer

The circulation of banned chemicals has consequences for exporters who have their cargoes turned back. However, experts raise the alarm that there is no data on what happens to the products that appear on the Albanian market.


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